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The best-known of Shirley Jackson's novels and a major inspiration for writers like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, The Haunting of Hill House is a chilling story of the power of fear.

'Shirley Jackson's stories are among the most terrifying ever written' Donna Tartt, author of The Goldfinch and The Secret History

Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely assistant; Luke, the future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own. Twice filmed as The Haunting, and the inspiration for a new 10-part Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House is a powerful work of slow-burning psychological horror.

Shirley Jackson was born in California in 1916. When her short story The Lottery was first published in the New Yorker in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the most iconic American stories of all time. Her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published in the same year and was followed by five more: Hangsaman, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, widely seen as her masterpiece. Shirley Jackson died in her sleep at the age of 48.

If you enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House, you might like Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'An amazing writer ... If you haven't read her you have missed out on something marvellous' Neil Gaiman

'As nearly perfect a haunted-house tale as I have ever read' Stephen King

'The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable' A. M. Homes

'Shirley Jackson is one of those highly idiosyncratic, inimitable writers...whose work exerts an enduring spell' Joyce Carol Oates

{"reviews":[{"body":"Puzzling but brilliant not scary but strange. Too never have anything and the have every thing but nothing. There is a sorrow","comment":null,"by_shop_owner":false,"youtube_video":null,"verified_review":true,"id":1196504,"displayed_image_url":null,"created_ts":"2019-02-02 00:00:00+00:00","star_rating":5,"score":0,"user_name":"Kindle Customer","user_image_url":null},{"body":"Fabulous! Great packaging, arrived on time and just what I wanted!","comment":null,"by_shop_owner":false,"youtube_video":null,"verified_review":true,"id":1196505,"displayed_image_url":null,"created_ts":"2019-02-02 00:00:00+00:00","star_rating":5,"score":0,"user_name":"Laura Tandy","user_image_url":null},{"body":"A classic, in my humble opinion. Beautifully written. Chilled me to the bone and broke my heart, all at once. Different from what I've read so far, but a true masterpiece of its genre.","comment":null,"by_shop_owner":false,"youtube_video":null,"verified_review":true,"id":1196506,"displayed_image_url":null,"created_ts":"2019-01-31 00:00:00+00:00","star_rating":5,"score":0,"user_name":"Jules R. Simon","user_image_url":null},{"body":"Small book but really good.","comment":null,"by_shop_owner":false,"youtube_video":null,"verified_review":true,"id":1196507,"displayed_image_url":null,"created_ts":"2019-01-29 00:00:00+00:00","star_rating":5,"score":0,"user_name":"Anna","user_image_url":null},{"body":"The Haunting of Hill HouseWas the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, horror's first Big Brother House?Ghost watcher Dr John Montague invites Eleanor Vance and Theodora ('Just Theodora') to stay at Hill House for the summer to observe manifestations of otherworldly phenomenon. They are joined by the house's next inheritor Luke Sanderson. The house has been uninhabited for some time due to its cast-iron pedigree of weirdness and haunting. Eleanor's psychological unravelling begins when she steals her sister's car. It's downhill for her from then on.All the key features of a Big Brother House are present, fifty years before we knew to look for them. Cut off from the real world in an orchestrated experiment controlled by the mysterious doctor, the small group immediately tries to test the boundaries:\"'Why did you bring us here, Doctor? Why are you here yourself? How did you hear about Hill House and what's going to happen?'The doctor frowned unhappily. 'I don't know,' he said. 'As for what's going to happen, I will learn that when you do.'\"On the first evening, everyone indulges in nervous, self-conscious performances as they reinvent themselves for the benefit of total strangers and compete for the attention of their fellow guests:\"'Truly a congenial little group,' Luke said approvingly. 'Destined to be inseparable friends, in fact. A courtesan, a pilgrim, a princess and a bullfighter. Hill House has surely never seen our like.'\"To keep the audience of readers enthralled, oddity and menace are kept going by unlikeable walk-on parts from grim housekeeper Mrs Dudley and Dr Montague's overbearing wife who's an expert on reaching out to the spirit world. And of course the house itself plays its part.The strain is ratcheted up as the days pass. Everyone turns on each other until finally someone cracks:\"She is being spiteful, Eleanor thought remotely; from a great distance, it seemed, she could watch these people and listen to them. Now, she thought, Theo is being spiteful and Luke is trying to be nice; Luke is ashamed of himself for laughing at me and he is ashamed of Theo for being spiteful.'\"If you fancy a genuine retro, Fifties-style Big Brother experience then this is the ghost story for you!Enjoy!","comment":null,"by_shop_owner":false,"youtube_video":null,"verified_review":true,"id":1196508,"displayed_image_url":null,"created_ts":"2019-01-29 00:00:00+00:00","star_rating":4,"score":0,"user_name":"John C Adams","user_image_url":null}],"product":{"platform_product_id":"1487422914611","star_distribution":{"1":0,"3":0,"2":0,"5":4,"4":1},"name":"Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson","average_stars":"4.8","review_images":[],"review_number":5,"variants":[],"id":966179},"review_page_count":1,"questions":[]}